I didn't watch this "contest" that closely. The Indians aren't a terribly compelling opponent and as many runners as they got on base against Gio Gonzalez, things never really felt all that jammy. Part of that is presumably because Gonzalez only allowed five hits and one walk. A hit-by-pitch (which always gets pushed to the bottom of the box score for no good reason) and a couple of A's errors (three, really, but two were by Jeff Larish on the same play) kept things interesting, but not interesting enough.

Larish filled in admirably with the bat, homering in his first trip and singling later on. The homer must have come as a surprise to Kevin Kouzmanoff: "Third base man hit power? What?" Kouzmanoff hasn't gone yard since July 31st, in that notable launching pad in Chicago. His last extra-base hit came on the 17th, a full week ago, and that was a game he didn't even start. Larish's double-error, though, reminded us all of why Kouzmanoff might be worth having out there. He doesn't boot routine balls the way Larish did, blowing a double-play, and he doesn't then panic and throw the ball into the dugout when he does boot the original play.

Coco Crisp homered, singled, and doubled, and thus has his SLG up to .475. That leads the team, with only Jack Cust close at .450. Coco is the leadoff man, of course. It's a fair question to ask whether perhaps DAric Barton, he of the .389 OBP and the sub-.400 SLG, ought to be hitting first, Cust second (.392/.450) and Coco third (.346/.475). But Barton and Cust clog the bases! (Which is maybe a fair point, given that Crisp has 22 steals, a number he'd surely not have were he hitting behind Barton and Cust.)

Either way, the Kurt-Suzuki-bats-third experiment has to end. .243/.301/.378 is his line on the year. That's awful. I mean, he's a catcher, and a good one. He's not utterly popless (that .130 ISO would look solid if he were hitting .280), but Cliff Pennington is outhitting him, and he's a threat on the bases to boot.